If you stack one million US$1 bills, it would be 110m (361 ft) high and weight exactly 1 ton.

Nessie, the Loch Ness monster is protected by the 1912 Protection of Animals Acts of Scotland. With good reason – Nessie is worth $40 million annually to Scottish tourism.

In 1932, when a shortage of cash occurred in Tenino, Washington, USA, notes were made out of wood for a brief period. The wood notes came in $1, $5 and $10 values.

Excessive use of credit is cited as a major cause of non-business bankruptcy, second only to unemployment.

In 2001 the richest woman was Liliane Bettencourt, the daughter of L’Oreal’s founder. She has a net worth of $14 billion (depending on how the stock market did today).

About 30% of consumers use their credit card as their main means of buying Christmas goodies, 70% do not save to buy Christmas gifts and 86% of consumers do their Christmas shopping during December.

Tap dancing originates from Irish clog dancing and what is called the Irish reel and jig.

The US has the most cinemas (23,662) while India [the country that produces the most movies - about 800 a year, twice as many as Hollywood] has about 9,000 cinemas and China has approximately 5,000 cinemas. – 300,000 people per cinema.

At the first Grammy Awards, held on 4 May 1959, Domenico Modugno beat out Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee for the Record of the Year, with “Volare.” More

A piano covers the full spectrum of all orchestra instruments, from below the lowest note of the double bassoon to above the top note of the piccolo.

The Carpenters signature song, We’ve Only Just Begun, was originally part of a television commercial for a California bank.

Ulysses Simpson Grant thought Venice would be a nice city if it were drained.

The only time in American history that the president and vice president were members of different political parties occurred in 1797, when Thomas Jefferson, Republican, became vice president under John Adams, a Federalist.

The first and only vice president to be drunk at his inauguration was Andrew Johnson. His doctor had prescribed an alcoholic drink to relieve pain.

Lyndon Baines Johnson was so obsessed with secrecy that he often wrote “burn this” on personal letters. This was so personal that no one on Earth including me knew about this.

The first wife of a president to have a college degree Lucy Webb Hayes, wife of Rutherford Hayes. She had a degree in geology, which was rare for a woman to have degrees at that time.

Forks, mostly being two-tined, used to known as “split spoons.”

Bananas are the world’s most popular fruit after tomatoes. In western countries, they could account for 3% of a grocer’s total sales.

Approximately one billion snails are served in restaurants annually.

An onion, apple and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavour are caused by their smell.

The pull-ring tab was invented in 1962 and the re-sealable top in 1965.

In the 1950′s some 80% of chickens in Europe and the US were free-ranging. By 1980, it was only 1%. Today, about 13% of chickens in the West are free-ranging.

Music was sent down a telephone line for the first time in 1876, the year the phone was invented.

Accounts from Holland and Spain suggest that during the 1500s and 1600s urine was commonly used as a tooth-cleaning agent.

In 1958 the US sent two mice called Laska and Benjy into space.

In 1961 the US launched a male chimpanzee called Ham into space.

Great Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps, on 1 May 1840. Hence, UK stamps are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin.

The first parachute jump from an airplane was made by Captain Berry at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1912.